79 Resources for Planning, Launching, and Marketing Your Book

You’ve written your book. Hooray! Now it’s time to create a plan and market it. A lot goes in to marketing, so here are 79 resources that can help.

Planning Your Marketing

1. “Your Book Marketing Plan Won’t Work” on David Gaughran
2. “Scan the Market Before Marketing Your Book” on Self Publishing Advice
3. “How Focused Goals Will Sell More Books” on AME
4. “Why Your Book Marketing Plan Should Include a Newsletter” on AME
5. “9 Ways (and 2 Rewards) of Marketing Your Own Book” on Jane Friedman
6. “When is the best time of year to release a book?” on Self-Publishing Review
7. “Reader Targeting Influences Everything” on David Gaughran
8. “What’s Your Author Persona? How to Be Yourself Online—Only Better” on Anne R. Allen
9. “We Don’t Sell Saddles Here” on Medium
10. “How to start an online business” on Amy Lynn Andrews
11. “Getting to grips with user stories” on GatherContent

Writing Promotional Content

12. “How To Write A Great Promotional Copy” on Xlibris
13. “189 How to Craft a Compelling Elevator Pitch for Your Book” on Novel Marketing
14. “Book Marketing: 3 Ways to Use Language to Sell More Books” on The Creative Penn
15. “Making Your Book’s Description POP on Amazon” on Indies Unlimited
16. “Start with Your Accordion Mostly Closed” on The Book Designer
17. “Tips for Authors: Why your first words matter most. Lessons from Journalism, the Pulpit, the Moth and TED” on Front Edge Publishing
18. “How to write good jacket copy” on Nathan Bransford

Speaking About Your Book

19. “How to Find Interviews as a Podcast Guest, Talk Show, or Radio Interview Guest Expert – Free!” on Radio Guest List
20. “How to be a Better Podcast Guest” on The Digital Reader
21. “How to Organise a Book Signing Event” on ALLi
22. “How to Plan a Book Reading That Delights Your Audience” on Jane Friedman
23. “How To Start A Speaking And Consulting Business” on Forbes

Launching and Marketing Your Book

24. “Are You Ready for Book Marketing? Take This Quiz” on Social Media Just for Writers
25. “The Indie Writer Book Launch Guide” on Indie Reader
26. Book blogger listing on Lounge Marketing
27. “Why Do an Indie Author Blog Tour” on ALLi
28. “Pop-Up Shops 101: Everything You Need to Know to Try Temporary Retail” on Shopify
29. “Getting the right cover for your book” on Nonfiction Author Association
30. “Public Libraries: How Authors Can Increase Both Discoverability and Earnings” on Jane Friedman

Marketing With Content

31. “Guest Post: Why Snail Mail is Still Effective in the Age of the Internet” on The Digital Reader
32. “Calendars might be the next great online publishing tool” on Poynter
33. “7 Triggers That Make People Want to Share Your Content” on Content Marketing Institute
34. “Use Expert Sources To Generate Local Book Publicity” on The Book Designer
35. “Can You Sell Your Books in Bite (Byte) Size Chunks?” on The Book Designer
36. “How to Get People to Actually Read Your Company Blog” on Inc
37. “72 Free Image Sources for Authors” on The Book Designer
38. “How I Went From 350 to 10,000 Reads on Wattpad in a Month” on Medium
39. “7 Tools to Optimize Your Old Content for New Conversions” on Content Marketing Institute
40. “Level up your content operations with structured content templates” on GatherContent
41. “10 ways to boost sales on your website” on Nonfiction Authors Association
42. “The Death of Google Search Traffic and What It Means for Marketers” on Social Media Examiner
43. “5 Tips for Popular Posts on Your Author Blog” on The Book Designer

Marketing With Emails

44. “How to Set Up Automated Emails for Reader Magnets” on Self Publishing Advice
45. “14 Content Ideas for Author Newsletters” on The Book Designer
46. “The best time to send your email” on MailerLite

Marketing With Ads

47. “How to buy your way to a larger author platform and bigger book sales” on Nonfiction Authors Association
48. “How to Test Your BookBub Ads for Better Results” on BookBub
49. “How to Create a Successful Native Advertising Campaign for Your Content” on Content Marketing Institute

Marketing With Social Media

50. “Hashtags for Writers” on Kindlepreneur
51. “How I Helped This Author Grow Her Platform From Scratch” on We Grow Media
52. “How to add alt text to Instagram posts” on Jenns Trends
53. “5 Ways of Reaching New Readers Using Social Media” on Book Works
54. “7 Social Media Metrics That Should Really Matter to Your Brand” on Content Marketing Institute
55. “Facebook is trying to entice creators with more monetization options” on The Verge
56. “Our Commitment to Lead the Fight Against Online Bullying” on Instagram

Marketing News and Updates

57. “Marketing Leader Seeks to Bridge the Generational Divide” on Forbes
58. “How To Sell Books In 2019” on David Gaughran
59. “What clicks with fiction readers? Wattpad helps authors find out” on The Globe and Mail
60. “Create multiple sources of revenue” on Nonfiction Authors Association

Tools

61. BookXtra
62. Authorright
63. Authograph
64. BookBub
65. Rafflecopter
66. Bookrageous Podcast
67. BookShout
68. Stencil
69. “Tools for Tracking Book Sales” on BiblioCrunch
70. Lounge Marketing
71. Backlinko Keyword Tool
72. Amazon First Reads
73. Amazon Blurb Previewer
74. “GIF-ing you a way to say LOL, haha or jajaja from Google Images” on Google
75. Microinfluencers versus Celebrities
76. Check My Links

Cool Projects

77. Art from Books
78. “Watch an Author Write a Novel Live on Google Docs” on Gizmodo
79. “Welcome to ‘Deep Bookstagram,’ where dark, book-based comedy thrives” on Mashable

This post was originally published January 2020.